Publications & Testimony

Yokamon Hearn (pic­tured) is fac­ing exe­cu­tion in Texas on July 18 despite clear evi­dence of brain dam­age since his ear­ly child­hood. Hearn’s tri­al attor­neys failed to con­duct an ade­quate inves­ti­ga­tion into Hearn’s ear­ly his­to­ry, which would have uncov­ered mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence that he was neglect­ed by his par­ents and had a his­to­ry of men­tal health prob­lems. His moth­er’s alco­holism was so severe that she drank to the point of pass­ing out dur­ing her pregnancy with…

A new book by Clive Stafford Smith, a British lawyer who has defend­ed death row inmates in the U.S., offers an in-depth view of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in America. In Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America, Stafford Smith exam­ines the case of Kris Maharaj, a British cit­i­zen who was sen­tenced to death in Florida for a dou­ble mur­der, to expose prob­lems in the jus­tice sys­tem. The book reveals dis­turb­ing details of Maharaj’s case, including…

The United Kingdom has intro­duced restic­tions on the expor­ta­tion of propo­fol after offi­cials in Missouri announced they would begin using the anes­thet­ic in exe­cu­tions. Exports of sodi­um thiopen­tal, anoth­er anes­thet­ic pre­vi­ous­ly used in exe­cu­tions, were restrict­ed after sev­er­al states obtained that drug from DreamPharma, a drug com­pa­ny run out of the back of a dri­ving school in London. Vince Cable, the U.K. Business Secretary, said, ​“This…

On July 10, Ohio Governor John Kasich (pic­tured) grant­ed clemen­cy to death row inmate John Eley, who was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on July 26. Eley’s sen­tence was reduced to life in prison with­out parole. The gov­er­nor said he based his deci­sion on evi­dence that Eley act­ed under the direc­tion of anoth­er per­son, and that his men­tal capac­i­ty was lim­it­ed, say­ing, ​“Without those fac­tors it is doubt­ful that Eley would have committed…

A recent New York Times edi­to­r­i­al encour­aged the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to reduce the sen­tence of death row inmate Warren Hill to life. Hill is fac­ing exe­cu­tion on July 18. The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed that Mr. Hill’s intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties, includ­ing an IQ of 70, led the tri­al judge to find him men­tal­ly retard­ed. Georgia’s Supreme Court, how­ev­er, over­turned the judge’s rul­ing because men­tal retar­da­tion had not been proven ​“beyond a…

A recent arti­cle in the Michigan State Law Review exam­ined the prob­lem of racial bias in cap­i­tal cas­es, par­tic­u­lar­ly with respect to jurors’ deci­sion mak­ing. Authors Mona Lynch and Craig Haney (pic­tured), both pro­fes­sors at the University of California, sum­ma­rize past sta­tis­ti­cal stud­ies on race and the death penal­ty and present new exper­i­men­tal research on juror deci­sion-mak­ing in a sim­u­lat­ed cap­i­tal tri­al. Research par­tic­i­pants were shown one of four sim­u­lat­ed tri­al video­tapes. The…

Warren Hill (pic­tured) is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on July 18 in Georgia despite being pre­vi­ous­ly found intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled. The U.S. Supreme Court in Atkins v. Virgnia (2002) banned the exe­cu­tion of indi­vid­u­als with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties (men­tal retar­da­tion), but allowed each state to set guide­lines for deter­min­ing whether an inmate has such a con­di­tion. In Georgia, cap­i­tal defen­dants are required to prove ​“men­tal retar­da­tion” beyond a…

On July 3, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on UN Member States that use the death penal­ty to abol­ish the prac­tice, stress­ing that the right to life lies at the heart of inter­na­tion­al human rights law. During a pan­el orga­nized by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Ban said, ​“The tak­ing of life is too absolute, too irre­versible, for one human being to inflict on anoth­er, even when backed by legal process… Where the death penalty…

In the first half of 2012, eight states car­ried out 23 exe­cu­tions. In the same peri­od last year, there were 25 exe­cu­tions in 9 states. The annu­al num­ber of exe­cu­tions has declined sig­nif­i­cant­ly from its peak in 1999, when 98 peo­ple were exe­cut­ed. There were 43 exe­cu­tions in 2011. Sixteen of this year’s exe­cu­tions (70%) have been in the South, with near­ly half in just two states — Texas and Mississippi. Seventy-eight per­cent (78%) of cas­es resulting in…

In June, the National Institute of Justice released the results of a study to deter­mine how often mod­ern DNA test­ing of evi­dence from old­er cas­es con­firms the orig­i­nal con­vic­tion. The study, con­duct­ed by the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C, test­ed DNA evi­dence that had been retained in homi­cide and sex­u­al assault con­vic­tions that occurred between 1973 and 1987 in Virginia. Among the homi­cides, there were not enough cas­es in which DNA would be determinative…